(mellow music)
- What's up, welcome back.
Today I'm going to be reviewing
the rarest deck in my collection,
probably one of the most expensive decks
in my collection that I've ever had,
this is the VIP Tour Edition Deck by David Blaine,
which is currently selling on Ebay for up to 650 bucks,
you could buy a small car for that price.
Now I'm not one to pay $650
for anything regarding playing cards,
mind you, I might spend $1000 on a puzzle,
but that's just me and I'm mentally deficient, so.
Here's what it looks like.
Tuck case is a matte black with a gold foiling,
no embossing on the tuck case,
you have David Blaine's logos on either side,
the VIP stamp at the top, which lets you know
that this is a VIP Edition,
as opposed to his regular Edition,
I don't think there are many differences
between the two decks, other than the tuck case,
the gold on the VIP Edition is like a rose gold,
as opposed to like a yellowish gold.
They are printed by the Expert Playing Card Company
and there are a few hidden secrets within this deck,
as with most of David Blaine's cards, which are cool,
what makes this deck super rare
is that they were underprinted, like super underprinted,
very, very limited quantities, even David himself told me
that he doesn't have many decks for himself,
so if you bought the tickets to meet him at his show,
where he would perform a little bit of magic
before the show,
he would then give you a little swag bag and in this
you would get one of these VIP Edition decks.
I thought it'd be fun to review it here,
because this is not something you're gonna see every day,
this is a super, super rare deck,
so if you're not interested in buying it,
you just wanna see what it looks like,
this video's for you.
We're gonna check out how they fair, how they handle
and what the difference is between this deck
and the other similar decks, which he released.
So before we get into it, guys, if you don't mind,
throw a like up, not an L, a like
and let's get into reviewing
these VIP decks by David Blaine, watch.
Alright, so here we go.
This is the Tour Edition David Blaine rare VIP deck.
The tuck case looks like this on the back of it,
as I mentioned, the tuck case has a lot of gold foil
and matte black looks really nice,
here you can see, this is interesting with the light,
you can kind of see like the dings and nicks,
so I mean, that's just normal, that's what happens
with every matte stock and matte paper,
you don't see it as much on white,
because you won't see the contrast.
It says here, Expert Playing Card Company,
made in PRC, I don't know what that means,
I think they're manufactured in Taiwan.
Now it is to be noted, this is one thing though,
that I discovered, David handed me three decks
and the three decks were as follows,
there was the VIP Tour Edition
and the big difference here is that you have that VIP stamp
as opposed to none here, also this is a rose gold tuck case,
it's hard to see on camera, maybe at the back,
you can actually see a little bit better,
so rose gold tuck case, I had to check to make sure,
as opposed to like a yellowish gold,
really hard to make out the difference,
but there is a very subtle difference,
the main difference again being the VIP stamp
versus the pips over here.
Other than that, these two decks are absolutely identical,
the same stack, so they do come in Mnemonica stack,
they do come with jokers that are sort of mirrored jokers,
we'll talk about the jokers in a second
and everything else is the same,
the whole deck is entirely the same,
the only difference is the tuck case,
which makes one of them super rare
and the other one also rare, just not as.
But one thing I did notice is that he also gave me
the Superior, these are the Superior Skull & Bones deck
released by Expert Playing Card Company
sort of like a silver colorway on the box design,
the difference is the cards here are white and black,
kind of like that old school Skull & Bones deck
made by Jackson Robinson,
and again the cards are identical, the same stack,
the same everything, same exact everything,
so not much of a difference in the quality
between a $600 deck and a $8 deck,
however those are the main differences.
So we're not gonna be reviewing these two,
I'm just gonna, you know, for continuity,
I'm gonna review this deck here,
which is essentially the same as these two,
other than the colorway.
So as I mentioned, the cards do come in Mnemonica stack,
as with most of David Blaine's playing cards
and most of mine as well.
Here's something really interesting,
this is the ace of spades by the way,
the ace is really beautiful, I'm not sure if Mark Sussman,
actually you know what, you know who did this?
This is probably Jackson Robinson,
so I'm guessing Jackson Robinson did this,
'cause that looks like his work as well,
he's the guy who did the Federal 52 on Kickstarter,
which was like the most funded deck in history,
it looks really, really dope.
One thing I noticed is that the black,
and I asked Bill about this and I was like,
is that dark green, he's like, "No, it's metallic black,"
but it does look like a really dark sort of green,
you can't hardly tell on video, but in person.
So you get two jokers in here,
they are mirror jokers, which is really cool,
I love the idea of the mirror jokers,
the artwork is always great,
but the jokers hold a bit of a secret here
as they are clues to the marking system
on the back of these cards and the marking system,
David showed me this personally and taught it to me,
it is extremely ingenious, I think it's great,
it's probably one of the best marking systems I've seen,
other than Speedreaders by Garrett Thomas
and obviously the White Lions marking as well,
I'm not gonna teach you the marking system,
I'm gonna let you discover it, if ever you get these decks,
if you wanna order, you can actually order
the Superior brand, which is the exact same deck as this
off their site and I'll leave the link below.
Two things to consider for the order,
is first of all, this clock with the dials,
actually no dials, just the clock
and down here, you have like some pips,
those two things together will allow you
to figure out the marking system.
Normally this is the marking system test,
when you're looking for a marking, you're doing this,
so normally you see like a difference on the back design,
there's absolutely no difference
on the back design whatsoever,
so it makes it really, really difficult,
which is really clever.
The back design is a metallic gold,
so it's not a foil gold, but a cool metallic gold,
which gives off a nice, just a nice little reflection,
I love the color, by the way, it's not too yellowy,
it's just nice and it contrasts well with the black,
these will probably be nice with gold and white as well,
but I really like that, looks fancy.
The court cards, the court cards,
as with most of David's cards, as with all of David's cards
have people in them, which are close to David,
so this for instance is Bill Kalush,
he is the founder and CEO of Expert Playing Cards,
there's David himself, you have Doug McKenzie
and Asi Wind on the other kings,
I'm not sure about the queens and the jacks,
I know one of the queens, I think it's his mother,
I think the queen of spades actually
and she's actually, this is cool, she's holding,
as with most of David's cards, there's a reveal,
she's holding the two of diamonds,
which is a really cool trick and you could say, you know,
the card that you're holding onto is your card
and she says no and the card that she's holding onto
and she's holding the two of diamonds,
so a cool little trick there incorporated.
Other than that, as I said, they're marked,
they're stacked and there's that reveal
and that is about it for the surprises.
As it's an Expert Playing Card deck,
you don't find two extra ad cards,
so they have 54 cards, not 56.
Now let's talk about feel and stock.
(mellow music)
So they faro really well, traditionally cut,
so you can faro from the bottom up, which is really nice
and right out of the box, they faro really well,
so no worries there, because they are thicker,
they do feel thicker and Expert Playing Card stock
has always felt thicker,
they're great for aerial shots,
because if you need that extra spin on those cards,
you can really pull it off well with these.
Also because they're thicker
and the stock feels sturdier and more dense,
they won't warp as easily as USPCC cards,
which makes them probably better for if you're working
in a very humid environment or on a hot summer day,
these will probably last you a lot longer.
That being said, I personally am not a big fan
of Expert Playing Cards, not because of the designs,
I love the designs and in fact,
most of the tuck case work that they've done
has been completely ingenious
and they've really taken it to another level,
however the feel and stock,
see right now, the fans are absolutely beautiful,
but I played with a deck, check this out,
so I played with this deck for about a day
and look at the, so there's a big difference
in the fan here, as you can see,
it's starting to sort of clump up
and although they clump, it's not a big deal,
but one of the things is this here
and so when the cards get crimped,
they kind of stay that way
and the cards just feel a little bit more clumpy,
look when I spread them out,
so here, we'll do a LePaul spread,
so a LePaul spread is probably a good way
to make it spread nice and even, but even then,
it's not, you know, it just feels a little bit clunkier,
even a pressure fan, you know,
like it just feels thicker, feels clunkier,
springs however are quite nice, because they're thicker,
they will spring louder and probably even further.
For cardistry, they're great, because the pack,
it tends to stick together, they're not super slippery,
so they tend to stick together,
which makes it a lot easier to use.
I think it's 'cause I'm so used to USPC
and the quality of USPC and the thin, crushed stock,
but some people love a thicker stock,
I know Patrick Kun's cards
are done with Expert Playing Cards
and I know that Alex Pandrea has also printed
a lot of cards with them, I don't know if I would ever
personally print with Expert Playing Cards,
that being said, they're always improving their stock
and their quality, just like Cartamundi,
they're always trying to catch up to USPCC.
I do appreciate other companies coming up
and trying to improve their quality,
because competition only breeds excellence
and it breeds better quality for everybody.
So there you go, that is pretty much the review
for these cards, they, I keep dropping them,
they did a good job on the design.
I think it's kind of funny though,
that this is kind of, like David's decks have always,
for me been like the most amazing decks of cards
and not just 'cause it's David Blaine,
the feel, the ideas behind them, the marking,
the stock, the box, everything just was amazing
and now I feel like this one,
it already, this is already a deck that exists,
that he just like kind of put his name on the tuck case
and was like, "Oh, these are mine now,"
and I don't know how I feel about that,
I feel like I prefer like Split Spades or White Lions,
even you know, the Stoics, like those were David's,
these feel like David just borrowed these
and put his logo on, no offense to David or to Bill,
they do look amazing and the artwork is incredible
and the marking system is ingenious,
I just feel like it needs to be David's deck,
you know what I mean, that's just me,
that's my personal opinion, let me know what you guys think
in the comments below about this deck
and about maybe the other David Blaine decks,
if that's something you guys are into,
but anyways, that's it for this review
of the most expensive and rare deck, that I own,
hope you enjoyed.
Oh, this is cool, I never actually thought
to sit down doing a review, I could do a, whatever.
Guys, I just wanted to say this as well,
I got to perform Voodoo, which is my effect,
that I came up with for David Blaine, which is really cool,
so it's kind of come full circle,
I've got to show him, he loved it,
so that's his signature and the other card.
I've linked the video to Voodoo,
if you guys wanna learn it, it's 10 bucks,
it's below us, so check that out,
if you're keen and we'll see it in the outro.
Alright guys, that about wraps it up for today's review,
what a gorgeous day,
we've had some beautiful weather recently.
By the way, by the way, two things I've gotta take care of
before I leave on a trip and I'll get into that in a second,
but I will be doing a few TV things,
I've got some morning shows to do,
no green screen suit this time,
but hopefully I'll reserve some other surprises.
Also working on that giveaway
and lastly, I'm going to Germany,
I'm going to Germany to visit my family
for like 10 days in a couple of weeks.
While in Germany, to all my German RamFam out there,
I will be doing a meet up
somewhere in the south-west of Germany,
so that's vague as hell, but it will be short notice,
that's just how I roll, very unorganized.
But if you guys are interested
and you're in the Germany area,
I'll be posting it on my Instagram,
so make sure to follow me on IG and I will let you guys know
when and where that's happening.
So guys, thanks for watching, again, like this video,
subscribe if you're new here, hit that bell
and we'll see you on the next video, peace out.
(mellow music)